Howdy!
While presenting my Colony Park, I have only indicated the fact that I own a number of bricky Volvos. So, I made a decision that I should write a bit more about them - so, let's begin with writing the story of my second brick, the infamous PRV.
Why infamous, though? Well, it has a reputation of a bad engine. When first introduced to the US market, it was roasted for being an US car imposter. The odd character of the shortened V8 was a troublesome one, the engine was said to be underpowered, and prone to damage. Even my car mechanic, who had a number of bricks in his life, but never a PRV, was like "uhh, you know what they say, dem PRVs are crap". But is it really a truth? Let's find out.
I spent half of the 2019 doing a postdoc assignment in Leiden, Netherlands. Even before going there, I have already made a decision I am going to return from there with a new car - presumably, Saab turbo cabrio. Unfortunately, I could not find a sensible candidate: most of the cars that would be interesting to me had either their MOT gone, or were in a trashy condition, or were too expensive. So my attention slowly drifted towards Volvos. The Curse Of The Trashed American stroke again. I found a nice, US 940 estate, running on LPG. I even went to the dealer (half of a country away from me!) for a test drive, but the car was not worth its price. First of all, it was marketed as B234F - but was "only" a B230F. And it was trashed... a lot of things would have to be done in order to use it as a daily driver, and certainly driving it back to Poland from time to time was not an option. I had to search more.
The second try was another American, this time - a 960, pre-FL. It looked great on the photos! Unfortunately, it was not so great when I saw it "live". In particular, there was a huge hole in the upholstery, made to install the LPG pipes. The 5th cylinder was dead, and the transmission was raising an error on the dashboard. And the car was offered for ~2400 Euro, this being a price of a working 960, basically.
But there was a light in the tunnel: I found a nice offer of a 760 GLE, for 1750 Euro. It was looking great in the photos! A quick telephone call, and I was set for a meeting in two days time. The owner just asked me it I am going to meet him for sure - there were many a man calling him and asking about the car! But that was nothing surprising. You can see the photos from the ad here:
Looks nice, doesn't it? Even the airco was working. No doubt I did whatever possible to arrive on time, and got the city of Hellmond on time. It turned out that it's owner had a number of Volvos, but had to move from his current home to another one (to shorten the daily commute), closer to Amsterdam, and as there was not enough space for many cars, he promised his wife to get rid of some. But he wanted to keep both turbo 850s, so he was asking for a high price for one them, and was eager to sell the 760 cheaper, than the market "standard". So it wasn't a long decision process. In less than an hour, we said goodbye, and I was driving back home as an owner of this:
What do we have here, actually?
Volvo 760 GLE '88;
Sedan, anthracite metallic;
B280F engine (145 HP) + catalyser + AW70 transmission;
Beige edelvelours;
Power windows, heated power mirrors (azure coating), heated seats, airco, electrical automatic antenna, CR-705 radio, factory towing hook, and a dead sunroof.
Sounds quite nice, isn't it? Here is another photo, with a Stahblerg 760GLE in front of it:
<a href="https://ibb.co/9rJwRNx"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/6W2v6mK/IMG-20190707-182828.jpg" alt="IMG-20190707-182828" border="0" /></a>
The car spent next weeks mostly grounded, as there was no need to drive it locally at that moment, I only did a couple of "training" cruises, testing what has to be done before I head for a short break in Poland. I got some ATF to fill the transmission (actually that was not an easy thing to do - to get it...), prepared myself for a ~12h long journey, and off we go!
The first problem happened some 150km from Leiden. I got a feeling that the airco seems to be working less efficiently... followed by a loud thump. Cr*p! I quickly pulled over to investigate - expecting the worst. Fortunately, it was "only" the airco belt that broke down. Interestingly, it was not an old one... but nevertheless, I was left without the cooling flow. Should that be a big problem?
Yes, because my BB Passport phone which I was using at that time was prone to overheating. And when overheated, it was loosing range, thus rendering the GPS unusable... Therefore, I decide to go for a short rest on one of the Tankstelle's in Germany - hoping that a ~30 minute stay will allow it to cool down. So I choose the first exit possible, hoping for a smooth stay... just to have a *&%($&* trucker hitting the 760 with his backing up trailer. Fortunately, there was not really much of a damage, but still, getting him to pay was one heck of a story. Nevertheless - after additional 10 hours, I finally reached Poland. Here are a couple of photos after arrival:
The second one is a photo of 760 together with a parts car - a 91' 960, bought without an engine. In general, it was in a derelict state, being used as a daily driver by a doctor - complete with a number of used needles hidden in the compartments, or lying on the floor... and it turned out later, that it was made of two different cars, welded altogether :P
Fortunately, the journey back was much of a smoother one. I used the car most extensively during the rest of my stay, visiting more distant parts of the NL, and gathering spare parts for my Volvoes. In mid-september, I packed the car up with most of my belongings, and drove them home. The car was fully loaded, as seen below:
I had to fly back to the NL for a couple more days, and the car was put in stasis once again, minus some short trips made by my parents, who had their A8 going through some maintenance. Shortly after arrival, I started the process of registering the car in Poland, as an old-timer. This includes preparation of a lot of paperwork, and making a whole set of car photos - that you can see below, showing the PRV in its full grace:
As you can see, the radio set got replaced: I put an SC-811 PSS, and a 2-DIN console from spares. It works really nice, and can be easily coupled with a small FM transmitter.
The registration process took some time, but finally, after 2 months, I was able to change the plates:
And I also did a small upgrade to the engine bay - do you see it?
So far, the car just... drives. No bigger problems since that ill-fated journey to Poland, no need to do any larger maintenance (the most costly one was probably the exhaust makeover, around 400$). What I would say is the most surprising part is that the PRV does not behave that bad. Of course - it does not accelerate as fast as B204FT, but it can easily rival eg. Audi 2.8 engine. The car is quite fast, easy to drive, and has a lot of cargo space (actually the widest trunk I ever had, I think!). I sometimes start to think that I am getting older, as I prefer driving this one over the Turbo 960
It has a much more "muscle" appearance to me and the PRV sounds "like a million dollars".
Any plans for now? The edelvelour seats are a bit sun-damaged, and I am aiming to replace them. I have already gathered two sedan seating sets - one "turbo" 940, and other velour 960 - and I have already bought memory seats (three of them!), leather in sorry state, but electronic and mechanical part should work ok; unfortunately, they are in my other Volvo, which is being brought back to life near Warsaw (some 300km from here). I had a plan to go through the pressure "switches" and belt buckle's lighting, but I guess that it does not make much of a sense now, actually. Another add-on is the wooden dashboard panel - it is in a sorry state as for now, and I am going to have to work with some sandpaper, furniture glue and furniture paint to get it nice again. And I am constantly looking for some "small details": I got some nice 1987-1988 Volvo brochures, a (working!) laptop computer from 1989, and I am still searching for an onboard phone kit. A Tourist and Diplomat series fender flag pole is also demanded.
<a href="https://ibb.co/hX4XZ8Q"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/8zfzd8v/IMG-20200426-183250.jpg" alt="IMG-20200426-183250" border="0" /></a>
In general, the car runs well. There was just one thing: the engine was running a bit rough, especially while revving up. I was quite sure that the reason is I once filled the tank with some ~10l of 95 octane fuel bought on a small station. At first, adding the "water neutraliser" helped. I got in touch with the mechanic, and we agreed that I am going to burn nearly all the fuel, and then he can proceed with the cleaning.
Finally, after quite a long time (I am only driving this car during weekends now), I got to the point at which the tank was nearly empty. The mech let the car burn the remainders while idling, cleaned the system, filled some new gas... and the problem persisted. But it wasn't a long time till the real reason was discovered: it was the ignition system. Should have checked it myself
While all the "normally-wearing-off-parts" were looking good from the outside, they were totally worn off from the inside. So, guess what, the car runs now just fine.
Got a few sensible photos recently. Nothing special, but moreover does the job:
And, well, that's all for now, I guess? Not really going to change much in the car now, it is the "last hope" when all other cars break down, and the recent, yet to be described "adventure" with The Colon makes it even more important to have one fully working car at hand
While presenting my Colony Park, I have only indicated the fact that I own a number of bricky Volvos. So, I made a decision that I should write a bit more about them - so, let's begin with writing the story of my second brick, the infamous PRV.
Why infamous, though? Well, it has a reputation of a bad engine. When first introduced to the US market, it was roasted for being an US car imposter. The odd character of the shortened V8 was a troublesome one, the engine was said to be underpowered, and prone to damage. Even my car mechanic, who had a number of bricks in his life, but never a PRV, was like "uhh, you know what they say, dem PRVs are crap". But is it really a truth? Let's find out.
I spent half of the 2019 doing a postdoc assignment in Leiden, Netherlands. Even before going there, I have already made a decision I am going to return from there with a new car - presumably, Saab turbo cabrio. Unfortunately, I could not find a sensible candidate: most of the cars that would be interesting to me had either their MOT gone, or were in a trashy condition, or were too expensive. So my attention slowly drifted towards Volvos. The Curse Of The Trashed American stroke again. I found a nice, US 940 estate, running on LPG. I even went to the dealer (half of a country away from me!) for a test drive, but the car was not worth its price. First of all, it was marketed as B234F - but was "only" a B230F. And it was trashed... a lot of things would have to be done in order to use it as a daily driver, and certainly driving it back to Poland from time to time was not an option. I had to search more.
The second try was another American, this time - a 960, pre-FL. It looked great on the photos! Unfortunately, it was not so great when I saw it "live". In particular, there was a huge hole in the upholstery, made to install the LPG pipes. The 5th cylinder was dead, and the transmission was raising an error on the dashboard. And the car was offered for ~2400 Euro, this being a price of a working 960, basically.
But there was a light in the tunnel: I found a nice offer of a 760 GLE, for 1750 Euro. It was looking great in the photos! A quick telephone call, and I was set for a meeting in two days time. The owner just asked me it I am going to meet him for sure - there were many a man calling him and asking about the car! But that was nothing surprising. You can see the photos from the ad here:
Looks nice, doesn't it? Even the airco was working. No doubt I did whatever possible to arrive on time, and got the city of Hellmond on time. It turned out that it's owner had a number of Volvos, but had to move from his current home to another one (to shorten the daily commute), closer to Amsterdam, and as there was not enough space for many cars, he promised his wife to get rid of some. But he wanted to keep both turbo 850s, so he was asking for a high price for one them, and was eager to sell the 760 cheaper, than the market "standard". So it wasn't a long decision process. In less than an hour, we said goodbye, and I was driving back home as an owner of this:
What do we have here, actually?
Volvo 760 GLE '88;
Sedan, anthracite metallic;
B280F engine (145 HP) + catalyser + AW70 transmission;
Beige edelvelours;
Power windows, heated power mirrors (azure coating), heated seats, airco, electrical automatic antenna, CR-705 radio, factory towing hook, and a dead sunroof.
Sounds quite nice, isn't it? Here is another photo, with a Stahblerg 760GLE in front of it:
<a href="https://ibb.co/9rJwRNx"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/6W2v6mK/IMG-20190707-182828.jpg" alt="IMG-20190707-182828" border="0" /></a>
The car spent next weeks mostly grounded, as there was no need to drive it locally at that moment, I only did a couple of "training" cruises, testing what has to be done before I head for a short break in Poland. I got some ATF to fill the transmission (actually that was not an easy thing to do - to get it...), prepared myself for a ~12h long journey, and off we go!
The first problem happened some 150km from Leiden. I got a feeling that the airco seems to be working less efficiently... followed by a loud thump. Cr*p! I quickly pulled over to investigate - expecting the worst. Fortunately, it was "only" the airco belt that broke down. Interestingly, it was not an old one... but nevertheless, I was left without the cooling flow. Should that be a big problem?
Yes, because my BB Passport phone which I was using at that time was prone to overheating. And when overheated, it was loosing range, thus rendering the GPS unusable... Therefore, I decide to go for a short rest on one of the Tankstelle's in Germany - hoping that a ~30 minute stay will allow it to cool down. So I choose the first exit possible, hoping for a smooth stay... just to have a *&%($&* trucker hitting the 760 with his backing up trailer. Fortunately, there was not really much of a damage, but still, getting him to pay was one heck of a story. Nevertheless - after additional 10 hours, I finally reached Poland. Here are a couple of photos after arrival:
The second one is a photo of 760 together with a parts car - a 91' 960, bought without an engine. In general, it was in a derelict state, being used as a daily driver by a doctor - complete with a number of used needles hidden in the compartments, or lying on the floor... and it turned out later, that it was made of two different cars, welded altogether :P
Fortunately, the journey back was much of a smoother one. I used the car most extensively during the rest of my stay, visiting more distant parts of the NL, and gathering spare parts for my Volvoes. In mid-september, I packed the car up with most of my belongings, and drove them home. The car was fully loaded, as seen below:
I had to fly back to the NL for a couple more days, and the car was put in stasis once again, minus some short trips made by my parents, who had their A8 going through some maintenance. Shortly after arrival, I started the process of registering the car in Poland, as an old-timer. This includes preparation of a lot of paperwork, and making a whole set of car photos - that you can see below, showing the PRV in its full grace:
As you can see, the radio set got replaced: I put an SC-811 PSS, and a 2-DIN console from spares. It works really nice, and can be easily coupled with a small FM transmitter.
The registration process took some time, but finally, after 2 months, I was able to change the plates:
And I also did a small upgrade to the engine bay - do you see it?
So far, the car just... drives. No bigger problems since that ill-fated journey to Poland, no need to do any larger maintenance (the most costly one was probably the exhaust makeover, around 400$). What I would say is the most surprising part is that the PRV does not behave that bad. Of course - it does not accelerate as fast as B204FT, but it can easily rival eg. Audi 2.8 engine. The car is quite fast, easy to drive, and has a lot of cargo space (actually the widest trunk I ever had, I think!). I sometimes start to think that I am getting older, as I prefer driving this one over the Turbo 960
It has a much more "muscle" appearance to me and the PRV sounds "like a million dollars".Any plans for now? The edelvelour seats are a bit sun-damaged, and I am aiming to replace them. I have already gathered two sedan seating sets - one "turbo" 940, and other velour 960 - and I have already bought memory seats (three of them!), leather in sorry state, but electronic and mechanical part should work ok; unfortunately, they are in my other Volvo, which is being brought back to life near Warsaw (some 300km from here). I had a plan to go through the pressure "switches" and belt buckle's lighting, but I guess that it does not make much of a sense now, actually. Another add-on is the wooden dashboard panel - it is in a sorry state as for now, and I am going to have to work with some sandpaper, furniture glue and furniture paint to get it nice again. And I am constantly looking for some "small details": I got some nice 1987-1988 Volvo brochures, a (working!) laptop computer from 1989, and I am still searching for an onboard phone kit. A Tourist and Diplomat series fender flag pole is also demanded.
<a href="https://ibb.co/hX4XZ8Q"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/8zfzd8v/IMG-20200426-183250.jpg" alt="IMG-20200426-183250" border="0" /></a>
In general, the car runs well. There was just one thing: the engine was running a bit rough, especially while revving up. I was quite sure that the reason is I once filled the tank with some ~10l of 95 octane fuel bought on a small station. At first, adding the "water neutraliser" helped. I got in touch with the mechanic, and we agreed that I am going to burn nearly all the fuel, and then he can proceed with the cleaning.
Finally, after quite a long time (I am only driving this car during weekends now), I got to the point at which the tank was nearly empty. The mech let the car burn the remainders while idling, cleaned the system, filled some new gas... and the problem persisted. But it wasn't a long time till the real reason was discovered: it was the ignition system. Should have checked it myself
While all the "normally-wearing-off-parts" were looking good from the outside, they were totally worn off from the inside. So, guess what, the car runs now just fine.Got a few sensible photos recently. Nothing special, but moreover does the job:
And, well, that's all for now, I guess? Not really going to change much in the car now, it is the "last hope" when all other cars break down, and the recent, yet to be described "adventure" with The Colon makes it even more important to have one fully working car at hand
Just kidding. 
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